La flor de mi secreto (1995)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Pedro Almodóvar

Writer:

Pedro Almodóvar (writer)

Release Date:

8 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Every woman has a secret...

Plot:

Leo Macias writes sentimental novels with great success but hidden under a pseudonym, Amanda Gris. She...

Plot Keywords:

Adultery | Flamenco | Organ Donation | Women | Newspaper

Awards:

4 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Marisa Paredes	...	Leo Macías
Juan Echanove	...	Ángel
Carme Elias	...	Betty
Rossy de Palma	...	Rosa
Chus Lampreave	...	Madre de Leo
Kiti Manver	...	Manuela
Joaquín Cortés	...	Antonio
Manuela Vargas	...	Blanca
Imanol Arias	...	Paco
Gloria Muñoz	...	Alicia
Juan José Otegui	...	Tomas
Nancho Novo	...	Doctor B
Jordi Mollà	...	Doctor A
Alicia Agut	...	Neighbor A
Marisol Muriel	...	Dancer

Also Known As:

La fleur de mon secret (France)
The Flower of My Secret (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Spain | France

Language:

Spanish | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | France:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-8 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Almagro, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Company:

CiBy 2000

Trivia:

During the film Leo talks about story lines for books. One of the stories is about a girl who kills her father after he tries to rape her and then along with her mother hides the body in a restaurant freezer. This is the basic plot of Volver (2006/I), one of Almodóvar's later films.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dolor y vida: Un acercamiento a 'La flor de mi secreto' (1995) (TV)

Soundtrack:

En el último trago

Certainly not his best movie.

In a very short period of time I've seen several of Pedro Almodóvar's movies and I've become a fan of his work. I love his style of mixing drama with (sometimes absurd) humor and music. I like the fact that he always knows to make you feel as if you know the characters personally after seeing the movie... Having said this, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by "La flor de mi secreto".

The characters aren't as well developed as I'm used to see in his movies and it's sometimes very hard to care for his main character: Leo Macías (Marisa Paredes). As Amanda Gris (her pseudonym), she is a writer of very successful sentimental novels who deal about love, sex and happy endings. But her personal life is a complete mess. She doesn't want to write this kind of novels anymore and she gets an assignment from a magazine to write a review on the work of... Amanda Gris. Her relationship with her man isn't any good. He works for the Nato, is more abroad than at home and when he's at home he wants to leave as soon as possible. She drinks too much, her mother is a cause of many concerns... She wants to change her whole life, but it isn't as easy as she hoped it would be.

Even though the story isn't bad or boring, it doesn't really succeed to be as captivating as I would like it to be. The positive thing about this movie is that you already can see Almodovár's talent for the use of humor and music, great camera work, interesting story telling... sipping through. Things that became more obvious in his later work. This movie may not be the best example of his work, but it is worth a watch. I give it a 6/10.